Jonathan Franzen Quotes

It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?

Jonathan Franzen

• Work
• Family
• Book
• Attention
• Nice

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Quotes to Explore

• I am of the opinion that the appreciation and the desire for what is good takes more study and insight than does the understanding and test for the best music and art.

  

  Laurance Rockefeller
  • Good
  • Music
  • Art

• If I get involved in a charity, I really want to be a part of it. I don't want to just put my name on your pamphlet.

  

  Nancy Lopez
  • Want
  • Name
  • Charity

• A sack is way better than any nightclub. A touchdown is way better than any bar experience I've ever had.

  

  J. J. Watt
  • Experience
  • Way
  • Better

• I work so hard, but... everything just goes my way! It's insane!

  

  Zara Larsson
  • Work
  • Everything
  • Just

• What I love about the sci-fi community is that it's the most nonjudgmental, inclusive, diverse environment in the country. There's no group of people that is more diverse and inclusive.

  

  J. August Richards
  • People
  • Country
  • Love

• Denied anything ardently desired, the individual or state will argue and parley just so long - then, if the impelling motive be sufficiently great, will cast aside every rule and break down every acquired inhibition, plunging viciously after the object wished; all the more fantastically savage because of previous repression.

  

  H. P. Lovecraft
  • Great
  • Long
  • Down

• Knowing constitutional law helps one at the opera. The trial in 'Billy Budd,' as example, invokes the fugitive slave clause of the U.S. Constitution.

  

  Karen DeCrow
  • Law
  • Constitution
  • Slave

• Sometimes justice is at its most merciful when it's blind.

  

  Nancy Gibbs
  • Justice
  • Sometimes
  • Blind

• I was supposed to be a doctor. I was supposed to go to Princeton. And everything I was supposed to do I didn't.

  

  Samuel Barber
  • Everything
  • Go
  • Doctor

• When I was 13 or 14, my mother used to gift me books that I was dying to read. Those are my most memorable birthday gifts.

  

  Kajol
  • Mother
  • Dying
  • Gift

• Whichever party is in office, the Treasury is in power.

  

  Harold Wilson
  • Power
  • Party
  • Office

• I didn't understand key signatures or anything, you know. I'd say silly things at the top of a trumpet part like, 'Note, when you play B naturals, make the B naturals a half step lower because they sound funny if they're B naturals.' And some guy said: 'Idiot, just put a flat on the third line and it's a key signature, you know?'

  

  Quincy Jones
  • Guy
  • Funny
  • Silly

• If we can return to a government that the Founders, in their wisdom, envisioned for us, we can return to a government that will allow our economy to thrive again, and our people to live in liberty.

  

  Nan Hayworth
  • People
  • Live
  • Government

• I always try to start my weekend by running on the beach, which is great fun here in Barcelona.

  

  Daniel Bruhl
  • Great
  • Fun
  • Running

• Small lending institutions lack the capability of their larger counterparts to hire the additional manpower necessary to deal with the hundreds of additional regulations created by Dodd-Frank.

  

  Sam Graves
  • Small
  • Deal
  • Regulations

• Horses and horsepower alike are about status and being cool.

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Cool
  • Being
  • Status

• There were mornings in the make-up trailer where I'd have fits of laughter because of the extraordinary daily events of the shoot. Sometimes, it was all too much to believe. But the wildest things happened.

  

  Madeleine Stowe
  • Up
  • Believe
  • Daily

• My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions.

  

  Eartha Kitt
  • Life
  • Myself
  • Opinions

• I think it's important to try to be present with whatever it is you're doing. And if you can't be present, take a break.

  

  Emily Giffin
  • Important
  • Present

• By the time she had interpreted Harry's dreams at the top of her voice (all of which, even the ones that involved eating porridge, apparently foretold a gruesome and early death), he was feeling much less sympathetic toward her.

  

  Joanne Rowling
  • Time
  • She
  • Death

• People use the guise of art, and artistic expression, to do all kinds of hateful things. It's like Trump and everybody else using the guise of humor to say hateful things, the excuse being, 'I was just being funny.'

  

  Luvvie Ajayi
  • People
  • Art
  • Funny

• The last thing you want is to not be recognized for all of the hard work you put in.

  

  The Weeknd
  • Work

• I think that I'd like to try to be a superwoman and have kids and work, so we'll see if I can actually accomplish that.

  

  Brooklyn Decker
  • Work
  • Kids

• It's not surprising to see in my own work, looking back, and in the work of some of my peers, an attention to family. It's nice to write a book that does tend toward significance and meaning, and where else are you sure of finding it?

  

  Jonathan Franzen
  • Work
  • Family
  • Book